It’s All About the Audiobook Market!
First, a bit of history. In 1941 the first test audio recordings included a chapter from Helen Keller’s Midstream and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” They were certainly not tested on an iPhone. The spoken word was available on vinyl albums and most often the recordings were poetry and plays. In 1963 the first cassette tapes were invented with full audiobooks available to the public in 1969. In 2003 the tapes gave way to the first compact discs, or CDs. As the CD became popular, another technology was on the rise. More than 20 years ago, on June 27, 1994, Geffen Records made history when it released the first major label song for exclusive digital download. Ten thousand CompuServe subscribers downloaded this WAV file. Eventually the CD lost popularity to the convenient digital download. Today, audiobooks are offered on CDs and as a digital download.
Audiobooks are growing in popular demand in recent years. Not only are they growing in popularity for readers, but recording books has become easier for publishers and independent authors. Authors can set up their own recording studio in a quiet room to narrate their books.
Today, 48% of audiobooks are played on smart phones and by users under the age of 35. The rise in audiobook listeners is evident in the ease in travel and access for content.
And, audiobooks are becoming so popular that publishers are skipping the printed book entirely and are initiating a straight-to-audio production workflow. This is accomplished with popular, well-established authors.
There are audiobooks for dogs as well! Cesar Millan has partnered with Audible.com to produce audiobooks for dogs. It provides dog owners peace of mind when leaving their dogs at home alone. Cesar has chosen a selection of audiobooks to calm your pooch.
An audiobook’s success is no longer tied to the success of the same content in print. People are making choices on ease of accessibility and mobility. Narrators have a big role in that, too. Narrators can make or break an audiobook’s success. They may also have their own fans. A narrator can endorse and market content more than an author if the narrator has a large following of listeners.
Each reader, with access to the internet, has a great opportunity to listen to the spoken word. A person with dyslexia, failing eyesight, physical impairment, or other reading obstacles is no longer at a disadvantage. An audiobook can be a support tool as well. Readers may listen to an audiobook while following along with the print book. This helps to learn words that they may not learn correctly if they were only to read the book. The audiobook allows each person to be an equal with content access.
For those who want the paper’s smell and feel, an audiobook will never satisfy that need. For those who are on the run and want content to be fed throughout their day, the audiobook is here to stay!
Audiobook aggregators like audible.com or studios for specific content like heroesmediagroup.com are a few of the many audiobook specialists. PPS is your go-to for content preparation and managing the audiobook supplier for your content. Contact us today at info@pps-ace.com.